Tonko backs alternatives to cuts

Updated 11:11 pm, Monday, February 18, 2013

Congressman Paul Tonko listens as Betty Head, MoveOn.org Council Organizer from Altamont, talks during a press conference about federal sequestration at Townsend Park Homes on Central Ave. on Monday Feb. 18, 2013 in Albany, N.Y. The Congressman along with capital district residents who spoke want to protect families and communities. They want to make corporations and the wealthy to pay their fair share of taxes.(Lori Van Buren / Times Union)

Congressman Paul Tonko talks during a press conference about federal sequestration at Townsend Park Homes on Central Ave. on Monday Feb. 18, 2013 in Albany, N.Y. The Congressman along with capital district residents who spoke want to protect families and communities. They want to make corporations and the wealthy to pay their fair share of taxes.(Lori Van Buren / Times Union)

Congressman Paul Tonko talks during a press conference about...

Congressman Paul Tonko talks during a press conference about federal sequestration at Townsend Park Homes on Central Ave. on Monday Feb. 18, 2013 in Albany, N.Y. The Congressman along with capital district residents who spoke want to protect families and communities. They want to make corporations and the wealthy to pay their fair share of taxes.(Lori Van Buren / Times Union)

Congressman Paul Tonko talks during a press conference about...

Congressman Paul Tonko talks during a press conference about federal sequestration at Townsend Park Homes on Central Ave. on Monday Feb. 18, 2013 in Albany, N.Y. The Congressman along with capital district residents who spoke want to protect families and communities. They want to make corporations and the wealthy to pay their fair share of taxes.(Lori Van Buren / Times Union)

Congressman Paul Tonko talks during a press conference about...

Congressman Paul Tonko listens as Betty Head, MoveOn.org Council Organizer from Altamont, talks during a press conference about federal sequestration at Townsend Park Homes on Central Ave. on Monday Feb. 18, 2013 in Albany, N.Y. The Congressman along with capital district residents who spoke want to protect families and communities. They want to make corporations and the wealthy to pay their fair share of taxes.(Lori Van Buren / Times Union)

ALBANY — Calling $85 billion in pending budget cuts "mindless," U.S. Rep. Paul D. Tonko on Monday joined advocates in demanding alternatives that would stave off potentially devastating effects of the reductions on seniors and the middle class.

The advocates and the Amsterdam Democratic lawmaker suggested the government gradually reduce spending while cutting tax breaks for oil companies, large corporations and the richest 2 percent of Americans.

Speaking at the Townsend Park Homes at 45 Central Ave., Tonko said a thriving middle class is the way to boost the nation's economy and create jobs — not the budget cuts, known as sequestration, set to start March 1.

"We need to do it in a way that is not a mindless sequestration where across-the-board cuts are a good way to kill a good program and a great way to save a bad program," Tonko told dozens in attendance.

He backed an amendment pushed by Rep. Chris Van Hollen, D-Maryland, that would repeal cuts and make up for the difference with newer taxes on the rich and an end to tax breaks for oil companies.

He said that plan offers "belt-tightening and spending cuts and conversely investment with a scalpel in hand — not a meat cleaver."

Citizen Action of New York released statistics at the event projecting that the cuts would cost education more than $82.4 million, the Head Start program for low income children and families in New York $38.6 million and a nutrition program for seniors nearly 4.5 million. That was in addition to cuts projected for breast and cervical cancer screenings, child immunization grants and family violence prevention services.

The advocates called for closing $1 trillion in corporate loopholes, negotiating prices for Medicaid and Medicare and lifting the cap on Social Security.

Betty Head of Altamont, a council organizer with MoveOn.org who attended the event, blasted the planned sequestration.

"The middle class should not bear the brunt of any further deficit reduction while the richest Americans contribute a little and big corporations pay nothing," she said. "This type of policy is neither sane, fair, balanced or, I might add, in the long-term interests of our country as a strong player on the world stage."